(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adhesive tape joining apparatus that joins a supporting adhesive tape to an electronic substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer or a printed substrate, and a ring frame to hold the electronic substrate by the ring frame.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A conventional adhesive tape joining apparatus includes a wafer supply part, a transport mechanism, an alignment stage, an ultraviolet-ray irradiation unit, a joining mechanism for joining a supporting adhesive tape to a semiconductor wafer and a ring frame, a separation unit for separating a surface-protective adhesive tape from a surface of the semiconductor wafer, and the like, for example. Herein, these constituent elements of the adhesive tape joining apparatus are integrally disposed on a base (refer to JP 02-028347 A).
Alternatively, these constituent elements are independently disposed at separate positions to execute separate processes, respectively (refer to JP 07-014807 A and JP 10-233372 A).
In the case of the former configuration, however, if any one of the constituent elements is halted due to a malfunction, the entire apparatus must be halted for maintenance. In a case where this maintenance requires many hours or a long period of time, there arises a problem of remarkable reduction in working efficiency.
On the other hand, the latter configuration is effective because maintenance can be performed for each constituent element. However, since the constituent elements are disposed separately, a transport mechanism for transporting a semiconductor wafer, a ring frame or the like must be disposed between the two constituent elements spaced away from each other. Consequently, there arises such a disadvantage that the configuration of the apparatus becomes complicated, resulting in increase of an installation area of the apparatus.